Hamas-dominated legislature sworn in

Several lawmakers say negotiations with Israel not on agenda.

Several lawmakers say negotiations with Israel not on agenda.

February 19, 2006|LAURA KING Los Angeles Times

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- With solemn speeches and an incantation of Quranic verses, a new Palestinian legislature dominated by the Islamist group Hamas was sworn in Saturday, setting the scene for a tense confrontation with Israel. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called upon the incoming government, which Hamas will form in the coming weeks, to honor past accords with Israel and continue to seek a negotiated peace that would lead to side-by-side states. "We ... will continue our commitment to the negotiation process as the sole political, pragmatic and strategic choice," Abbas told lawmakers, diplomats and dignitaries who assembled here for the swearing-in ceremony, together with a parallel gathering in the Gaza Strip. Hamas leaders pledged to try to resolve political differences with moderates such as Abbas through dialogue, but several of its leading lawmakers said negotiations with Israel did not figure in the group's plans. Abbas "was elected according to one platform, and we were elected according to another," said Ismail Haniyeh, who is considered the likely Hamas candidate for prime minister. He led the militant group's slate of candidates to a decisive victory in the Jan. 25 parliamentary elections, the Palestinians' first in a decade and the first in which Hamas participated. Israel, which has threatened to impose sweeping sanctions against the Hamas-led government, has said it will have no dealings with the government unless it renounces its call for Israel's destruction, recognizes the Jewish state's right to exist and disarms its military wing. "As of today, the rules of the game have changed," said a senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the government's position would be ratified formally at a meeting of the Cabinet Sunday. "The Palestinian Authority ... has become a hostile entity vis-a-vis Israel. That has far-reaching implications." Steps being weighed by Israel include an immediate freeze on the transfer of tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority, the closing of border crossings with the Gaza Strip and a freeze on construction of Gaza's airport and seaport. It is by no means clear that Abbas has the authority to set any preconditions for Hamas' participation in the Palestinian government, as Israel has demanded. The group won 74 of the 132 seats in the legislature, and by law the largest party in Parliament is asked to put forth candidates for prime minister and the Cabinet, a process that could take up to five weeks. Haniyeh, who is considered a pragmatist, has hinted that the group will present a government made up of the group's less radical elements, and some non-Hamas members. Israel and Hamas appeared to be trying to position themselves for their looming confrontation by not yielding too much ground early on. If the Israeli government, led by acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, puts harsh sanctions in place now, it could portray rescinding them later as a gesture of statesmanship. Such a step could wait until after Israel's own parliamentary elections, fewer than six weeks from now, in which Hamas has become a major campaign issue. Hamas, while balking at formally renouncing its call for Israel's destruction, has signaled readiness to call for a long-term "hudna," or truce. It also has moderated its position somewhat by indicating it will seek the creation of a Palestinian state only in the West Bank and Gaza, rather than in all of historic Palestine -- which encompasses Israel.